Waller:
- Fed's Waller says may need to hold current rate for longer than expected, no rush to cut
- Waller's remarks have pumped up the US dollar
- More Fed's Waller: The economy has supported the cautious approach by the Federal Reserve
- Still more from Fed's Waller: If unemployment goes up no reason to panic
- Check out this headline: "Why the Fed Is Delaying Interest-Rate Cuts: Waller"
- More Waller headlines: "Fed's Waller Says No Rush to Cut Interest Rates"
Other:
- Critical US inflation report coming up on Friday when markets will be closed
- Two new appointees to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand have been named
- Important Japanese inflation data will be released on the Good Friday holiday
- Bank of Japan Summary - rate hikes ahead will be slow to come
- Japan chief cabinet secretary Hayashi won't rule out any option against excessive FX moves
- ECB's Knot and BoE's Mann speaking on Thursday
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 7.0948 (vs. estimate at 7.2259)
- China hopes the Netherlands would ensure "normal" trade of lithography machines
- Australian Retail Sales for February +0.3% m/m (expected 0.4%, prior +.1%)
- New Zealand March business confidence 22.9 (prior 34.7)
- BOJ 'Summary' of the historic March 2024 meeting
- Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: Stocks stay hot, FX stays cool
- New Zealand data - March consumer confidence plunges to 86.4 (prior 94.5)
- SNB Vice President Schlegel says the Bank has no target for the franc (CHF) exchange rate
- US Treas Sec Yellen says not ready to discuss potential US retaliation over China
- Trade ideas thread - Thursday, 28 March, insightful charts, technical analysis, ideas
The main event of the session were comments in a speech and following Q&A from Federal Reserve Board Governor Christopher Waller. His remarks were nuanced but leant towards holding rates higher for longer (delaying the first rate cut) and indicative of fewer rate cuts this year than have been indicated earlier. We’ve heard the same recently from Bostic and Kashkari.
Waller’s remarks sent the US dollar higher across the major FX board. As I post, though, those moves have been fully retraced.
USD/JPY was a bit of a laggard, but it did rise eventually to above 151.50. It too has subsequently retraced, back down to earlier levels around 151.25 or so. We have had just one comment from a Japanese official cross the wires to support the yen today, so far at least. Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Hayashi said he won't rule out any option against excessive FX moves.
Also from Japan was the ‘Summary’ of the historic Bank of Japan last week when rates were raised for the first time in 17 years. From the Summary a key takeaway is that this was a tentative step and further tightening will be slow to come.
The People’s Bank of China set the reference rate for the onshore yuan more than 1300 pips stronger than estimated (for CNY) again today.
Note, it’s a holiday across much of Asia tomorrow, Good Friday, 29 March 2024:
- New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore are all out
Japan and mainland China will be open. There is inflation data coming from Japan during tomorrow’s session (Tokyo area, a leading indicator of nationwide inflation). ForexLive will be in to cover this, and more.
